Washington (United States) (AFP) – A group of parents in Texas asked the US Supreme Court on Monday to block a state law that requires the Bible’s Ten Commandments to be displayed in public schools. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other groups joined the parents of diverse faiths with children in Texas public schools in asking the top court to hear the case.
“The US Supreme Court has rejected this kind of government-imposed religion before, and it should do so again,” Chloe Kempf, an attorney at the ACLU of Texas, said in a statement. “Our nation’s bedrock principle of separating church and state means that families and faith communities — not politicians — get to decide what role religion plays in children’s lives,” Kempf said.
In a similar case in 1980, the Supreme Court ruled that the display of the Ten Commandments in schools in Kentucky was unconstitutional. However, in April, a conservative-dominated appeals court ruled in favor of the Texas law, Senate Bill 10 (SB10), which requires the scripture to be posted in every classroom. The judges ruled that SB10 did not violate the Establishment Clause of the US Constitution, the part of the First Amendment that prohibits the government from establishing a national religion or showing preference to one over another.
Conservatives enjoy a 6-3 majority on the Supreme Court, and the justices have sided with religious rights claims in a number of recent high-profile cases.
© 2024 AFP
